We know there have been great battles where nations have
met in strife, and one has overcome the other; but who has
read of a victory that overcame the world? Some will say that
Alexander was its conqueror; but I answer, nay. He was
himself the vanquished man, even when all things were in his
possession. He fought for the world, and won it; and then
mark how it mastered its master, conquered its conqueror, and
lashed the monarch who had been its scourge. See the royal
youth weeping, and stretching out his hands with idiotic
cries, for another world which he might ravage. He seemed, in
outward show, to have overcome Old Earth; but, in reality,
within his inmost soul, the earth had conquered him, had
overwhelmed him, had wrapped him in the dream of ambition,
girdled him with the chains of covetousness, so that when he
had all, he was still dissatisfied; and, like a poor slave,
was dragged on at the chariot wheels of the world, crying,
moaning, lamenting, because he could not win another. Who is
the man that ever overcame the world? Let him stand forward:
he is a Triton among the minnows; he shall outshine Caesar;
he shall outmatch even our Wellington, if he can say he has
overcome the world. It is so rare a thing, a victory so
prodigious, a conquest so tremendous, that he who can claim
to have won it may walk among his fellows, like Saul, with
head and shoulders far above them. He shall command our
respect; his very presence shall awe us into reverence; his
speech shall persuade us to obedience; and, yielding honour
to whom honour is due, we'll say when we listen to his voice,
"Tis even as if an angel shook his wings."

The Christian overcomes the world. A tough battle: not one
which carpet knights might win: no easy skirmish that he
might win, who dashed to battle on some sunny day, looked at
the host, then turned his courser's rein, and daintily
dismounted at the door of his silken tentnot one which
he shall gain, who, but a raw recruit today, puts on his
regimentals, and foolishly imagines that one week of service
will ensure a crown of glory. Nay, it is a life-long
wara fight needing the power of all these muscles, and
this strong heart; a contest which shall want all our
strength, if we are to be triumphant; and if we do come off
more than conquerors, it shall be said of us, as Hart said of
Jesus Christ; "He had strength enough and none to
spare;" a battle at which the stoutest heart might
quail; a fight at which the bravest might shake, if he did
not remember that the Lord is on his side, and therefore,
whom shall he fear? He is the strength of his life; of whom
shall he be afraid? This fight with the world is not one of
main force, or physical might; if it were, we might soon win
it; but it is all the more dangerous from the fact that it is
a strife of mind, a contest of heart, a struggle of the
spirit, a strife of the soul. When we overcome the world in
one fashion, we have not half done our work; for the world is
a Proteus, changing its shape continually; like the
chameleon, it hath all the colours of the rainbow; and when
you have worsted the world in one shape, it will attack you
in another. Until you die, you will always have fresh
appearances of the world to wrestle with.

We rebel against the world's customs. And if we do so,
what is the conduct of our enemy? She changes her aspect.
"That man is a heretic; that man is a fanatic; he is a
cant, he is a hypocrite," says the world directly. She
grasps her sword, she putteth frowns upon her brow, she
scowleth like a demon, she girdeth tempests round about her,
and she saith, "The man dares defy my government; he
will not do as others do. Now I will persecute him. Slander!
come from the depths of hell and hiss at him. Envy! sharpen
up thy tooth and bite him." She fetches up all false
things, and she persecutes the man. If she can, she does it
with the hand; if not, by the tongue. She afflicts him
wherever he is. She tries to ruin him in business; or if he
standeth forth as the champion of the truth, why then she
laugheth, and mocketh, and scorneth. She lets no stone be
unturned whereby she may injure him. What is then the
behaviour of the Lord's warrior, when he sees the world take
up arms against him, and when he sees all earth, like an
army, coming to chase him, and utterly destroy him? Does he
yield? Does he yield? Does he bend? Does he cringe? Oh, no!
Like Luther, he writes "Cedo nulli" on his
banner"I yield to none;" and he goes to war
against the world, if the world goes to war against him.

The true-born child of God cares little for man's opinion.
"Ah," says he, "let my bread fail me, let me
be doomed to wander penniless the wide world o'er; yea, let
me die: each drop of blood within these veins belongs to
Christ, and I am ready to shed it for His name's sake."
He counts all things but loss, that he may win
ChristThat he may be found in Him, and when the world's
thunders roar, he smiles at the uproar, while he hums his
pleasant tune. When her sword comes out, he looketh at it.
"Ah," saith he, "just as the lightning leapeth
from its thunder lair, splitteth the clouds, and affrighteth
the stars, but is powerless against the rock-covered
mountaineer, who smiles at its grandeur, so now the world
cannot hurt me, for in the time of trouble my Father hides me
"in His pavillion, in the secret of His tabernacle doth
He hide me, and set me upon a rock." Thus, again, we
conquer the world, by not caring for its frowns.

"Well," saith the world, "I will try
another style," and this, believe me, is the most
dangerous of all. A smiling world is worse than a frowning
one. She saith, "I cannot smite the man low with my
repeated blows, I will take off my mailed glove, and showing
him a fair, white hand, I'll bid him kiss it. I will tell him
I love him: I will flatter him, I will speak good words to
him." John Bunyan well describes this Madam Bubble: she
has a winning way with her; she drops a smile at the end of
each of her sentences; she talks much of fair things, and
tries to win and woo. Oh, believe me, Christians are not so
much in danger when they are persecuted as when they are
admired. When we stand upon the pinnacle of popularity, we
may well tremble and fear. It is not when we are hissed at,
and hooted, that we have any cause to be alarmed; it is when
we are dandled on the lap of fortune, and nursed upon the
knees of the people; it is when all men speak well of us,
that woe is unto us. It is not in the cold, wintry wind that
I take off my coat of righteousness, and throw it away; it is
when the sun comes, when the weather is warm, and the air
balmy, that I unguardedly strip off my robes, and become
naked. Good God! how many a man has been made naked by the
love of this world! The world has flattered and applauded
him; he has drunk the flattery; it was an intoxicating
draught; he has staggered, he has reeled, he has sinned, he
hast lost his reputation; and as a comet that erst flashed
across the sky, doth wander far into space, and is lost in
darkness, so doth he; great as he was, he falls; mighty as he
was, he wanders, and is lost. But the true child of God is
never so; he is as safe when the world smiles, as when it
frowns; he cares as little for her praise as for her
dispraise. If he is praised, and it is true, he says,
"My deeds deserve praise, but I refer all honour to my
God. " Great souls know what they merit from their
critic; to them it is nothing more than the giving of their
daily income. Some men cannot live without a large amount of
praise; and if they have no more than they deserve, let them
have it. If they are children of God, they will be kept
steady; they will not be ruined or spoiled; but they will
stand with feet like hinds' feet upon high
places,"This is the victory that overcometh the
world."

Sometimes, again, the world turns jailer to a Christian.
God sends affliction and sorrow, until life is a
prison-house, the world its jailerand a wretched jailer
too. Have you ever been in trials and troubles, my friends?
and has the world never come to you, and said, "Poor
prisoner, I have a key that will let you out. You are in
pecuniary difficulties; I will tell you how you may get free.
Put that Mr. Conscience away. He asks you whether it is a
dishonest act. Never mind about him; let him sleep; think
about the honesty after you have got the money, and repent at
your leisure." So saith the world; but you say, "I
cannot do the thing." "Well" says the world,
"then groan and grumble: a good man like you locked up
in this prison!" "No," says the Christian,
"my Father sent me into want, and in His own time He
will fetch me out; but if I die here I will not use wrong
means to escape. My Father put me here for my good, I will
not grumble; if my bones must lie here if my coffin is to be
under these stones if my tombstone shall be in the wall of my
dungeonhere will I die, rather than so much as lift a
finger to get out by unfair means." "Ah," says
the world, "then thou art a fool." The scorner
laughs and passes on, saying, "The man has no brain, he
will not do a bold thing; he has no courage; he will not
launch upon the sea; he wants to go in the old beaten track
of morality." Ay, so he does; for thus he overcomes the
world.

I might tell of battles that have been fought. There has
been many a poor maiden, who has worked, worked, worked,
until her fingers were worn to the bone, to earn a scanty
living out of the things which we wear upon us, knowing not
that oftimes we wear the blood, and bones, and sinews of poor
girls. That poor girl has been tempted a thousand times, the
evil one has tried to seduce her, but she has fought a
valiant battle; stern in her integrity, in the midst of
poverty she still stands upright, "Clear as the sun,
fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners,"
a heroine unconquered by the temptations and enticements of
vice. In other cases: many a man has had the chance of being
rich in an hour, affluent in a moment, if he would but clutch
something which he dare not look at, because God within him
said, "No! The world said, "Be rich, be rich;"
but the Holy Spirit said, "No! be honest; serve thy
God." Oh, the stern contest, and the manly combat
carried on within the heart! But he said, "No; could I
have the stars transmuted into worlds of gold, I would not
for those globes of wealth belie my principles, and damage my
soul: " thus he walks a conqueror. "This is the
victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."